hour * star

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From the New Pages blog: “PEN American Center, the largest branch of the world’s oldest literary and human rights organization, announced today the creation of PEN Reads, an online reading group that will bring readers and writers together to discuss works of literature relevant to PEN’s mission. The inaugural title will be The Hour of the Star(New Directions) by the legendary Brazilian author Clarice Lispector.”

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I also love Agua Viva (Stream of Life) and Perto do coração selvagem (Near to the Wild Heart).

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Hélène Cixous wrote: ” If Kafka were a woman; if Rilke were a Brazilian Jewish woman born in the Ukraine; if Rimbaud had been a mother, if he had reached his 50s; if Heidegger had been able to stop being German, if he had written the Novel of the Earth. . . . It’s in this ambiance that Clarice Lispector writes. There, where the most demanding works breathe, she advances. There, further ahead, where the philosopher loses his breath, she continues, still further, beyond all knowledge.”

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*postscript prayer: A woman with osteoperosis & bone chips in her hip joint, a man who mourns the loss of his brother, a little girl who does not live with her parents and who draws hearts on paper airplanes, and a woman who still awaits her healing.